THIS WEEKEND Three
new releases failed to steal attention away from last weekend's top two
films which continued to rule the North American box office swapping chart
positions in the process. Jerry Seinfeld's animated hit Bee
Movie enjoyed the better hold and jumped into first place while
the Denzel Washington-Russell Crowe crime drama American
Gangster suffered a moderate decline and slipped down to the
runnerup position. Ticket buyers have spent a stunning $152M on the duo
over the past ten days. Among newcomers, the Christmas comedy Fred
Claus starring Vince Vaughn generated respectable results while
Tom Cruise suffered his worst opening in twenty-one years with the political
drama Lions For Lambs which finshed
a weak fourth for the frame. The overall marketplace struggled once again
as for the first time in five years, a November top ten failed to break
the $100M mark.

Paramount and DreamWorks missed out on a top spot debut last weekend
with their new toon Bee Movie, but
this time they managed to grab the number one slot. The PG-rated film slipped
33% and collected $25.6M, according to final
studio estimates, boosting the ten-day tally to a robust $71.8M. Though
a good hold, especially with the opening of rival family flick Fred
Claus, the decline was somewhat larger than the drops of other
recent animated kidpics that bowed on the first weekend of November. Last
year, Flushed Away dipped by only 12%,
2005's Chicken Little slid just 21%,
and 2004's The Incredibles dropped
29%. The Veterans Day holiday was observed on a Friday last year giving
a large number of school children a day off which helped deliver the sensational
hold of Flushed. This year, the holiday
is observed on Monday when Bee is still
expected to score solid results. Look for the insect pic to reach the neighborhood
of $120M domestically with international prospects also looking rosy.

Dropping an understandable 45% to second place was former champ American
Gangster with $24M in its sophomore frame. After only ten days,
Universal has shot up a remarkable $80.4M and has already surpassed the
total grosses of most of Washington's previous films. Gangster
currently ranks as the fifth biggest Denzel pic ever behind Remember
the Titans ($115.6M), The Pelican Brief
($100.8M), Crimson Tide ($91.4M),
and Inside Man ($88.5M). . The Ridley
Scott-directed drama also stands as the fourth highest grossing film in
Russell Crowe's career after Gladiator
($187.7M), A Beautiful Mind ($170.7M),
and Master and Commander ($93.9M).
At its current pace, American Gangster
should find its way to $130-140M from North America making it the studio's
third biggest hit of 2007 after The Bourne Ultimatum
and Knocked Up. End-of-year awards
attention could send it higher though.

Opening in third place was the Christmas comedy Fred
Claus which took in $18.5M from an ultrawide release in 3,603
locations. Averaging a mediocre $5,139 per site, the PG-rated flick about
Santa's older brother stars Vince Vaughn and Paul Giamatti and played to
a family audience. The Warner Bros. release is one of only two films this
year to launch in more than 3,500 theaters and fail to gross at least $30M
on opening weekend. The other was the animated penguin pic Surf's
Up which debuted to $17.6M in June. Instead, Fred
performed in line with last November's yuletide laugher The
Santa Clause 3 which bowed to $19.5M on its way to a $84.5M
final.

Tom Cruise suffered one of the worst opening weekends of his career
with the poor turnout for his political drama Lions
For Lambs which stumbled into fourth place with $6.7M. The R-rated
pic also stars Meryl Streep and Robert Redford who directs as well. Lions
averaged a feeble $3,026 from 2,215 theaters and was panned
by most critics. Despite the starpower, bad reviews and the subject matter
which dealt with war in the Middle East helped to repel paying customers.

Excluding 1999's Magnolia in which
Cruise had a supporting role, Lions attracted
the smallest debut for the actor since Ridley Scott's Legend
which opened with just $4.3M in 1986. It also ended the star's streak of
thirteen consecutive number one openings over fifteen years and is guaranteed
to stop his industry-leading streak of seven straight years of having $100M+
grossers. The Redford project marked the first film for United Artists
which is now run by Cruise and producing partner Paula Wagner. Parent company
MGM took distribution duties in North America with Fox handling the release
in the rest of the world where the film also launched this weekend to mixed
results.

In its third weekend, the Steve Carell dramedy Dan
in Real Life dipped only 24% to $6M and lifted its total to
a respectable $30.8M for Buena Vista. The horror sequel Saw
IV tumbled 52% to $4.9M putting its sum at $58M for Lionsgate.
Family hit The Game Plan took in $2.5M,
off 37%, and reached $85.5M making it the top-grossing film since the summer
movie season ended. The horror flick 30 Days of
Night grossed $2.2M, down 42%, and placed ninth. Cume is $37.4M
for Sony.

The woman-in-peril thriller P2 debuted
poorly in ninth with $2.1M from 2,131 locations for a pitiful $978 average.
The R-rated film about a workaholic stalked by a killer in a parking garage
on Christmas Eve is the first release from Summit Entertainment which was
testing its distribution operation ahead of its real slate of films which
will hit theaters in 2008.

New Line's John Cusack drama Martian Child
fell 45% in its second weekend to $1.8M. The New Line release has collected
only $6.1M in ten days and should end up with a weak $9-10M.

Miramax generated a sizzling debut for No Country
For Old Men, the newest film from the Coen Brothers. The R-rated
entry grossed $1.2M while playing in only 28 theaters for a sensational
average of $43,798 per site. Co-produced by Paramount Vantage, the Javier
Bardem-Josh Brolin-Tommy Lee Jones starrer will expand to more markets
on Friday.

Three modestly-budgeted films were bumped out of the top ten this weekend.
George Clooney's acclaimed legal drama Michael
Clayton dipped 39% to $1.7M bringing its cume to a decent $35.6M.
The $22M film should find its way to about $40M for Warner Bros., but has
the chance to go higher if it scores some major award nominations.

Tyler Perry's latest hit Why Did I Get Married?
grossed $1.5M, off 44%, and boosted its total to an impressive $53.1M.
The profitable $15M Lionsgate title looks to end with roughly $57M. It's
been a tougher road for Miramax's crime drama Gone
Baby Gone which took in $1.4M, down 35%, giving Ben Affleck's
directorial debut only $17M to date. Produced for $19M, the Casey Affleck-Morgan
Freeman drama should end its run with about $22M.

The top ten films grossed $94.3M which was down 11% from last year when
Borat remained in first place with
$28.3M; and down 12% from 2005 when Chicken Little
stayed in the top spot with $31.7M.

Compared to projections, Fred Claus
opened below my $28M forecast while Lions For
Lambs debuted a couple of notches less than my $10M prediction.
P2 was close to my $3M projection.

This column is updated three times each week:
Thursday
(upcoming weekend's summary), Sunday
(post-weekend analysis with estimates), and Monday
night (actuals). Opinions expressed in this column are those solely of
the author.